Wellbeing is increasingly important in regional development policy, but what do we know about it?

What is it about?

Wellbeing has become important in regional development policy as decision-makers grapple with allowing industry to use resources that belong to the public. We investigated what scholars know so far about the links between ‘regional development’ and ‘wellbeing’. We identified an increasing focus on sustainable development; ii) different approaches for pre-development planning and post-development impact assessment; iii) the top four components of wellbeing that are considered are livelihoods, education and skills, health, and the quality of the surrounding environment; iv) scholars are using mixed methods approaches to investigating wellbeing and regional development. We argue that there is a need to rigorously synthesise wellbeing and regional economic research but that this must be done within a carefully designed interdisciplinary approach.

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Photo by Mor Shani on Unsplash

Photo by Mor Shani on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Supporting wellbeing (particularly employment and wealth-generating activities) in sub-national or regional areas is an argument that is often used by governments and industry bodies to allow the exploitation of natural resources. But can the complex notion of wellbeing be addressed by regional development, and if so, how? It is important to understand how much we know about this at the moment, and where future research is needed.

Perspectives